Two weeks ago, a couple of my teammates found some kittens on the doorstep of a little bakery at our bus stop we sit at everyday. The woman inside called for them to go in so they could play with the other ones too. Quickly our teammates called for us to come in also, after they saw the terrible condition of the woman’s leg. We prayed for her and just sat with her everyday for about a week until we decided to seek medical help from one of our teammates Dad’s, who happens to be a doctor.
He explained that from her X-Rays he thought it started as stress fracture and a really bad sprain. Due to the pain she was in, she wrapped it everyday not knowing that the mild case of athletes foot she had would grow rapidly due to the dirty bandages she was using. This constant routine of keeping it all closed up and her living conditions, led to a massive fungal infection all around her foot and crawling up her leg. This started last January and she has been dealing with the pain ever since.
So we got some cream, gauze, wraps, and disinfectant soap and spent this past week going everyday to tend to her leg. One of my teammates expressed that she felt it was a God thing that he didn’t heal her the first day we prayed for her because then we would have never gotten to grow in relationship with her. We wouldn’t have gotten to laugh at her sassiness or cry with her when the pain was just unbearable. He gave us this special time with her to teach us how to serve the least of these while seeing them with the eyes that he has for them.
Maria Elena is so full of the Lord that it overflows in everything she does. After every cleaning and wrapping session we do, she puts her shoes back on and gets up to go make us all a meal. We’ve had chicken, rice, soup, pumpkin, potatoes, tortillas and when we return to our bus stop every evening to go home, she always gives us a big bag of homemade bread to take along. She also never fails to give all the glory to the Lord. She thanks him first for the healing he’s done in her, and thanks us second for being there to help her through it all. And that’s exactly how it should be. Her faith is so big that I know we will see ultimate healing for her before we leave in December. Not because of the cream or the gauze, but because she has full confidence that the Lord is going to heal her. He already is healing her.
I am so thankful the Lord brought us to this incredible woman. I have learned what getting your strength from the Lord looks like. How to serve even when it takes sacrifice to do so. How to be thankful. What it means to really trust that the Lord is holding you in his hands. And a million other things. Thanks God for Maria Elena.
Warning – A few of these pictures are a little graphic so brace yourself!
The first day we met Maria Elena and prayed for her leg: 
Before any Treatment: 
After a week of treatments:
My teammate, my leader, and I wrapping her up:
Gosh, we love her: 
